


Zach Stone Is Gonna Save Christmas

by zach_stone



Category: Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Holiday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-21
Updated: 2015-07-21
Packaged: 2018-04-10 09:32:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4386695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zach_stone/pseuds/zach_stone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the Stone family’s annual Christmas plans go awry, Zach takes matters into his own hands to make this the best Christmas ever.</p><p>(Originally posted on tumblr in the weeks leading up to Christmas 2014.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It’s two weeks before Christmas, and Zach Stone is sitting in the living room with his father. His mother has been on the phone in the kitchen for the last ten minutes, her voice growing more and more agitated. Zach’s dad is watching his wife from the couch, brow furrowed in concern. Finally, Zach’s mom hangs up the phone and comes back into the living room, looking crestfallen.

“What’s happening?” asks Mr. Stone.

“That was Paul,” Mrs. Stone says, referring to her brother, who lives in Utah. “He says they can’t make it to Christmas, Carole’s mother is sick and they have to stay home.” She shakes her head. “The annual Christmas weekend is cancelled.”

Every year for as long as Zach can remember, his uncle, aunt, and cousins flew in from Utah to spend Christmas and New Year’s in Massachusetts with the Stones. His mother looked forward to it every year, since it was the only time she really got to see her brother. It’s become the definition of Christmas for Zach and his family.

“Oh Sidney, I’m so sorry,” Zach’s dad says, standing up to hug his wife.

Mrs. Stone sighs. “I know it’s silly, it just… feels like it won’t really be Christmas this year.”

Zach bites his lip, thinking. Christmas is his mom’s favorite holiday. He hates to think of the day being ruined for her. Then, a small smile spreads over his face. If it’s the holiday spirit his mom needs, Zach’s going to bring it tenfold. This will the biggest, flashiest, most Christmassy Christmas the Stone family has ever seen. Yes, Zach Stone is gonna save Christmas!

 

Zach meets up with his best friend Greg later that day, eager to tell him all about his great plan. Besides, he has to give Greg his annual dorky Hanukkah-themed sweater. Greg always rolled his eyes at the sweaters, but he also always wore them, and Zach was certain he secretly looked forward to it.

“Happy Hanukkah!” Zach says when Greg opens his front door. He thrusts a large gift bag into his best friend’s arms. Greg looks slightly startled, but he takes the present and steps back to let Zach inside.

“You really don’t have to get me one of these every year,” Greg says, setting the gift on the coffee table and shaking his head, trying to hide his amusement. Zach stomps snow off his shoes and shrugs out of his coat.

“Of course I do, it’s tradition!” he says. “Speaking of tradition, you’ll never guess what happened this morning.” Without waiting for a response, Zach barrels on. “My Uncle Paul called and they cancelled Christmas Weekend.”

“Oh no,” Greg says, frowning. “Your mom must be so bummed.”

“She’s devastated,” Zach says dramatically. “But that’s why I have decided to surprise my family with the best Christmas ever. I’m gonna be like the Grinch at the end of the story when he comes riding into town with all the presents and the food and saves the day.” He stares into the middle distance, getting that gleam in his eye that always incites worry in Greg. “Zach Stone is gonna save Christmas, Greg.”

“Oh man,” Greg mutters. “Uh, how exactly are you going to do that?”

Zach claps his hands together. “I’m gonna start by putting up the lights in the yard. We’re going to have the brightest house on the block. Possibly the whole city. I bought so many lights at the mall before I came over.”

“Great,” Greg says, trying not to envision the many ways that could go wrong. “Do you need help with that?”

“Nah, I can do it. Thanks though, man.” Zach shifts in his seat, his demeanor changing slightly. “I do have another problem, though.”

“What is it?” Greg asks, wary.

“I have no idea what to get Amy for Christmas!” Zach says. “I’ve been trying to buy her something for months, but I have no idea what to get her! This is our first Christmas as a couple. It has to be special, you know?”

“Hmm,” Greg says. “Well, what do girls like? You could get her jewelry or something?”

“Maybe…” Zach says. “That doesn’t seem personal enough, though. Anybody could get her jewelry. I’m not just some run-of-the-mill boyfriend. I have to be the best boyfriend.”

“Well I’m sure you’ll think of something,” Greg says.

“Yeah,” Zach sighs. “I hope so. Well, I should go,” he says, perking up. “I have a house to infuse with the Christmas spirit!”

“Have fun with that,” Greg says, shaking his head as he watches Zach prance out of his house.

 

One of Zach’s favorite scenes from any Christmas movie is the scene in Christmas Vacation, when Clark Griswold plugs in the lights and the entire house, covered in 25,000 imported Italian twinkle lights, glows so brightly that the entire city loses power. That, Zach thinks, is the kind of Christmas decorating his family needs this year. He waits until his parents have gone out for a few hours, planning to pick up his brother Andy from the mall on their way home, and then he gets to work.

He has a little trouble hanging lights, especially with gloves on. Things end up pretty haphazard, but eventually Zach has wrapped every tree and bush in the yard with lights, as well as the entire front of the house. A spiderweb tangle of extension cords connect everything together, trailing back to the outlet in the garage. Zach’s waiting to plug it all in until his family returns. He stands in the garage, shivering a little and pushing snow around with his foot. Finally, his parents and Andy pull up to the house, stopping the car in the driveway. Zach pushes play on the CD player next to him, and “Jingle Bells” begins blasting through the speakers. His father gets out of the car first, looking confused.

“Zach, what the hell are you doing?” he says, slowly taking in all the lights snaking around the yard.

“Oh, just filling our yard with Christmas joy!” Zach says proudly. His mother and Andy get out of the car and join his father in the yard.

“Dude, what did you do?” Andy says, laughing. “Just close your eyes and throw the lights wherever?”

“Ha ha ha,” Zach says, defensive. “For your information, Andy, this took a lot of work. And now it’s time for the grand unveiling!” He holds up the extension cord and wiggles it at his family.

“Zach, honey, I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” his mother says, looking at the pile of wires. “This looks a little dangerous.”

“Mooooom,” Zach whines. “I know what I’m doing. I’m not an idiot. Just stand back and enjoy!” He holds the plug up to the outlet and says loudly over the music, “Prepare for some Christmas magic!”

As soon as Zach plugs in the cord, there’s a bright spark, a loud crackling sound, and then the sound of glass popping. The music stops. A tingling sensation shoots through Zach’s arm and he yanks his hand away from the plug, yelping in pain. The lights had lit up for about a second, a bright blaze of multicolored twinkling, but then the overloaded circuit couldn’t take it and the whole thing blew out, a couple of the little lightbulbs bursting in the process. Zach’s family shouts in surprise.

“God damn it, Zach!” his father says angrily. Andy is laughing in disbelief. His mother rushes over to Zach and grabs his arm.

“Did you get electrocuted? Are you okay?” she asks.

“I’m fine,” Zach says sheepishly, pulling his arm away. His mother reaches over and pulls the extension cord out of the socket, sighing.

“Well, you just blew out our supply of twinkle lights,” she says. “I doubt any of them will work now.”

Zach frowns. This is not going the way he planned. “Mom, I was just trying to--”

“It’s fine, Zach, I know.” She sighs again. “Can you clean all this up, please?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Zach huffs. His father gives him a stern look as he follows Mrs. Stone inside.

“Nice going, big bro,” Andy says.

“Shut up,” Zach snaps, kicking snow at him. As he gathers up armfuls of light strands, he tries to psych himself up again. Okay, so this first step didn’t go exactly how he’d hoped. Fine, every plan has a few fumbles along the way. He’s just going to have to come up with something even better to bring some holiday spirit to his family.

 

That evening, Zach calls Amy to lament to her about his less-than-successful first phase of Christmas cheer.

“Aw, baby,” she says when he’s finished. He can tell she’s stifling laughter, but she still sounds sympathetic.

“It was a total disaster! Did I mention I got electrocuted?” he huffs.

“You did. Three times, actually. Does it still hurt?”

It doesn’t really, but Zach’s feeling a little needy. “Kind of,” he says.

“Well I’ll have to kiss it better next time I see you,” she says, and he grins, still a little in awe of the fact that this is his life, that Amy is actually his girlfriend, even though it’s been months.

“Well you know,” Zach says. “I think I shocked more than just my hand.”

“Oh really?”

“Mmhm. I think I shocked my lips, too. Can you kiss those better?”

Amy snorts. “I think that can be arranged. Think you can hold out til Christmas?”

“If I have to,” he sighs. “When do you get home again?”

“December 20. But I’ll be with my dad and stepmom until Christmas eve, so I won’t really be home until then.”

“Ugh,” Zach says. “Lame.”

“I know,” Amy says. “I can’t wait to see you. And to give you your Christmas present! I think you’re really gonna like it.”

“You already have it picked out?”

“Of course I do, silly. Christmas is right around the corner. I finished my holiday shopping a week ago.”

“Oh, uh, me too,” Zach lies. “Your present is so awesome, you’ll love it.” He winces at his own fib.

“Oh gosh, now I’m really excited. You’re the best,” she says. “I should go, but let me know how things go with your Christmas-saving project. I hope phase two goes better.”

“Yeah, me too,” he replies. “Well, goodnight. I love you!”

“I love you too,” she says. “Night, Zach.”

After they hang up, Zach flops onto his bed and sighs. Now he has to come up with the coolest present ever for Amy, and he still has zero ideas. He’s got his work cut out for him if he’s going to pull this Christmas thing off.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zach's plans to both fix his family's Christmas and get the perfect gift for Amy get wilder as he starts to run out of time.

Christmas is ever nearing, and Zach is still floundering for ideas for a gift for Amy. He’s been Googling “best christmas gifts for girlfriend” and one of the stories that came up was a guy who wrote poems for his girlfriend every holiday. Now, Zach’s not really a poet, but how hard can it be, right? It’s just making things rhyme. Armed with a pencil and a notebook and RhymeZone.com, he gets to work.

“Hey mom?” Zach asks, poking his head into the kitchen where his mother is wiping down counters.

“Hey sweetie,” she says, glancing up at him. His parents had been very irritated at him after the lights fiasco, but several days of doing chores without being asked (well, without being asked more than once) and general ass-kissing, and they seem to have forgiven him.

“Would you mind looking at something for me?” Zach says, holding up a piece of paper. “I’m working on a, uh, a poem for Amy for Christmas. I don’t know if it’s any good, though.”

“Oh, Zach, that’s such a sweet idea!” his mom says, smiling and taking the paper from him. “Let’s see.  _Dear Amy, I love you / When you’re near I’m never blue_. Very cute,” she says.

“Keep reading,” he says eagerly.

“ _You make me happy day and night / Being your boyfriend is really nice / Thank you for all the things you do / And for letting me kiss you and touch your boo_ \-- Zachary!” His mom looks at him, shaking her head. “You can’t say that in a poem.”

Zach groans and takes the paper back from her. “I don’t know how to write poetry,” he says. “I’m never going to come up with a good present!”

“You’ve known Amy for years,” his mom says. “And you’ve always been able to get her presents she really loves. What’s different now?”

“What’s different now? What’s different is that now I’m her boyfriend, and I have to get her something really, really special to prove that I’m special and awesome and better than any other boyfriend.” Zach crumples up his poem attempt and huffs out a breath.

Mrs. Stone smiles sympathetically and rubs Zach’s back. “Honey, you don’t need to prove anything to Amy. She already thinks you’re special and awesome. And so do I.” She takes the poem from him. “Now, if you want to stick with a poem, this one needs a little work. But I know Amy will love whatever you get her, okay?”

Zach sighs, letting his mom hug him. “Okay. Thanks, mom. How’s your Christmas shopping going?”

“Oh, I’m done,” she says. “Although I’ll have to ship Paul’s gift to him, so it’s going to be late.” She looks sad. “This Christmas is a weird one, huh?”

“Yeah,” Zach says. “Don’t worry, mom, it’s still going to be great. I promise.”

“Hmm,” she says, going back to cleaning. “I hope you’re right.”

Zach leaves the kitchen, deciding he’s going to have to pause his search for the perfect Amy gift. It’s time to put phase two of Operation Save Christmas into motion.

 

The Stone family is eating dinner, and Zach keeps glancing at the clock and then grinning at his plate. Mr. Stone is side-eyeing him, already bracing himself for whatever chaos Zach has planned. Finally, the doorbell rings and Zach jerks fully upright, beaming.

“Hey! Sounds like someone’s at the door!” he says. “Mom, why don’t you go answer it?”

“Zach, we’re eating right now,” his mom says.

“Why should mom have to answer the door, anyway?” Andy says.

“Whatever you have planned, Zach, it can wait til after dinner,” his father adds.

Zach frowns and drums his fingers on the table. “Mom, I promise, something cool is outside the door. You will like it. Please?”

Mrs. Stone looks at her husband, who just raises his eyebrows. “All right,” she says, getting up. Zach whispers “yesss” and follows her to the door. Andy and Mr. Stone are right behind them, and Mrs. Stone opens the door to reveal a gaggle of about 10 children in coats and hats, holding little songbooks.

“Merry Christmas!” one of them says. Then she nods to the rest of the group and they start singing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”

Zach’s mom smiles, and Zach feels proud. He’d gone around the block and recruited a bunch of the neighborhood kids to come by and sing carols. Sure, he’d dropped about $50 on those songbooks, plus promising all of the kids $10 to get them to do it, but his mom looks happy so he feels like this is actually working. The kids move on to “Winter Wonderland” and they’re getting pretty horribly off-key. Zach watches his mother’s smile turn a little more forced, and Andy wrinkles his nose and says to Zach in a low voice, “How long do we have to stand here?”

Zach bites his lip. “Uh, okay, thank you guys for the lovely songs, you can go now!”

“No way!” says one of the boys. “We still have four more songs to sing!”

“Oh Jesus,” Mr. Stone mutters.

“Look, you did what I asked you to do, so can you beat it?” Zach says pointedly. This was not the best thing to say, because now the children are getting angry.

“We want our ten dollars!” one of them says.

“Yeah!” another pipes up.

“I’ll give it to you tomorrow,” Zach hisses. His parents and Andy are all staring at him, wondering how the hell he’s going to get this mob of kids off their lawn.

“No way! That wasn’t the deal!”

Zach steps forward and starts to somewhat forcefully usher the kids away from the door. The cold air bites against his face and arms and he just wants these brats to scram so he can go back inside. Why did he think working with children was a good idea? Children are vicious little monsters.

As if to prove this correct, one of the kids kicks snow at him. “Hey!” he shouts. “Listen, if you don’t get out of here, I’m not paying you!” The kids start tossing their songbooks into the snow. One of them kicks the mailbox, hard. “Don’t throw those! Cut it out!”

The children finally start to leave, each one taking a moment to kick or smack the mailbox on their way. Zach watches helplessly, and by the tenth child the box is rather dented. He shakes the snow out of his hair and turns around, wincing at the looks on his parents’ faces. Andy is, as usual, smirking at him.

“Kids, right?” Zach says, trying to lighten the mood. His dad just shakes his head.

“Come inside, Zach, you’ll freeze out there. Our food’s getting cold,” his mom says. Zach shuffles inside. Phase Two had gone marginally better than Phase One, so he counts it as a minor victory.

 

It’s Christmas Eve, and Zach is running out of time for both of his projects. His gift for Amy is still to be determined, and bringing the holiday spirit to his mother has been harder than he’d hoped. He still has one last idea, and for it he’s going to need Greg’s help. When he greets Greg at the front door with a box full of candles, his best friend is immediately suspicious.

“What exactly are we doing?” he asks as they enter the living room.

“I figured out the problem with my other ideas,” Zach says. “See, both of those involved bringing my mom  _outside_  to experience classic Christmas cheer. This time, I’m going to bring it right to our living room.” He points to the Christmas tree in the corner of the room.

“Oh, no,” Greg says. “Zach, you cannot put real candles in that tree, you’ll burn it down.”

“Greg, relax. I looked it up, people do this all the time. You just have to make sure there aren’t any branches right over the flame.” He puts the candle box in Greg’s arms and takes one, affixing it to one of the branches. He takes out a lighter and Greg winces. However, Zach lights the candle and it flickers nicely. Nothing catches fire. Zach smiles at Greg. “Told ya.”

“Mhm,” Greg says, still uncertain. Zach takes another candle and stands on his toes to put it in a higher branch.

As he’s doing this, Mr. Stone walks into the living room. “Zach, what are you -- is that a real candle?” he says.

Zach, caught off guard, stumbles a little and the first candle tips over, lighting one of the branches of the tree aflame. Zach shouts and jumps back, falling into Greg and spilling candles everywhere as the tree catches fire. Mr. Stone yells, rushing to the kitchen to grab the fire extinguisher.

After the tree has been thoroughly put out, its needles are blackened and several branches have fallen off onto the carpet. Zach, whose shirt was singed and now shows a bit of midriff, helps Greg to his feet and looks at the sad remains of the tree.

“Fast thinking there, dad,” he says.

“God damn it, Zach,” his father booms. “Look what you’ve done to our tree! The whole house could have caught fire!”

“But it didn’t,” Zach says. “All thanks to you! You’re a hero, dad.”

“Shut up,” Mr. Stone snaps. “Zach, you’ve done nothing but cause trouble the past few days. And now you’ve destroyed our tree. What the hell is wrong with you?”

“I was just trying to bring some Christmas spirit into the house,” Zach mutters.

Mr. Stone shakes his head. “Well you sure didn’t. It’s Christmas Eve, there’s no way we’ll be able to replace the tree now. And most of our ornaments are ruined. Your mother is going to be so upset when she sees this.”

Greg, who has been standing awkwardly in silence throughout this whole conversation, says, “Zach, I’m gonna go home…”

Zach just nods, ashamed. His father tells him to clean up the mess of the tree, and when Mrs. Stone gets home she’s duly horrified by what’s happened. Even Andy isn’t laughing this time. By the time the family goes to bed, Zach is pretty sure everyone in the house is furious with him. All he wanted to do was make this Christmas special, and now it seems totally ruined. Not to mention, he’s still got nothing to give Amy when he sees her tomorrow. He texts Amy to tell her what’s happened at his house with the tree and everything.

_I don’t know what I’m doing wrong_ , he types.

_Maybe you’re aiming too big_ , Amy responds a few minutes later.  _The true Christmas spirit isn’t always something big and flashy, you know? It’s just got to be sincere._

Zach stares at her text, a smile slowly spreading across his face. Amy always knows exactly the right things to say. And he thinks she’s just solved both his problems.

_You’re a genius. Can you do me a huge favor?_ he texts back. He thinks he finally knows how to fix everything. He just hopes it will work.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zach might just be able to salvage Christmas after all, and he finally comes up with a gift for Amy. (Includes a link to Zach's gift for Amy!)

Zach has to wait until he’s certain everyone in his family is asleep on Christmas Eve before he creeps downstairs. He texts Amy and says,  _The eagle has landed._

_What???_ she texts back. Zach lets out the quietest of sighs.

_Come over, I’m downstairs,_  he replies. He waits a few minutes, standing in the living room and looking at the pile of presents in the corner where the Christmas tree used to be. He hears the softest knock at the front door and hurries to open it. Amy is standing there, cheeks flushed from the cold, holding a small pink fake Christmas tree that she usually keeps in her bedroom every holiday season.

“Hi,” she whispers. Zach feels his heart speed up just looking at her. It’s been too long since they’ve seen each other in person. He steps out into the cold night air and cups her face with his hands, leaning down to kiss her gently. She lets the tree flump onto the powdery snow on the porch and grips his pajama shirt in her hands, pulling him closer.

“Hi,” Zach breathes as they pull away. Amy presses her cheek against his chest and they hug. “You’re cold,” he says.

“And you’re very warm,” she says. “I missed you.”

Zach rests his cheek on her head. “I missed you, too.”

“You should get inside, it’s cold. And I should go back before my mom realizes I snuck out.” Amy pulls back and hands him the tree.

“You are a lifesaver,” he says, smiling at the little tree. “And you’re sure you don’t mind me borrowing this?”

“Not at all. You need it more than I do, I think.” She laughs a little. “Before I go, which hand is the one you electrocuted?”

Zach raises his right hand and Amy takes it and kisses his fingers. “There. I told you I’d kiss it better.”

He shakes his head, kisses her one more time, and then she hurries down the street back to her house four doors down. Zach shuts the door, shivering. He brings to tree over to the pile of presents and sets it down, going to work arranging the presents around it in a tasteful way. He comes across a few with his name on them and resists the temptation to shake them to see what’s inside.

Zach slips back upstairs to his room to grab the one strand of lights he’d managed to salvage from the fiasco the other day. He wraps them around the little tree, and when he plugs them in the pink tinsely branches shimmer quite nicely in the white lights. Zach nods to himself. He sets an alarm on his phone for 6:30 a.m. and lays down on the couch, drifting off to sleep.

When his alarm goes off about four and a half hours later, he almost pushes snooze and goes back to sleep, but he blearily catches sight of the Christmas tree and flings himself off the couch, remembering what he still has to do. He goes into the kitchen and quietly puts together a plate of Christmas cookies that he’d bought the day before and hidden in the pantry, and then he finds a radio station playing Christmas songs (not that that’s hard to do) and turns it on at a low volume. Then he hurries upstairs and creeps into Andy’s room, shaking him awake.

“What the fuck?” Andy groans, pushing his brother away.

“Andy, get up, it’s Christmas!” Zach says.

“Go away,” Andy says, rolling over.

“No, dude, it’s tradition, we always get up this early on Christmas. Don’t you want to open presents?”

Andy squints at him. “We only get up this early when the cousins are here. They’re not here this year. Anyway, who cares about Christmas, you already ruined everything.”

Zach frowns. “Look, Andy, I know I fucked up, okay?” He sits on the edge of the bed. “I just didn’t want mom to be so upset. She’s been bummed out for like two weeks straight.”

Andy sits up. “Yeah, I know.”

“I promise, I’m not doing any more stupid stuff. I just want to celebrate Christmas the same way we always do. So please help me wake up mom and dad and come downstairs?” Zach says. He widens his eyes and puts on his best pouting face. Andy sighs and kicks back the covers.

“Okay, okay,” he says. “If dad gets mad about being woken up, I’m blaming you.”

As expected, the Stone parents are not thrilled about being awoken so early, but in the spirit of Christmas, they begrudgingly come downstairs. Mr. Stone is already expecting the worst, seeing as Zach seems so eager. When Zach has this much energy before 7 a.m., it’s never a good sign.

But when the family arrives downstairs to see the tree, the lights, the cookies, and the music, and no sign of impending disaster, they’re pleasantly surprised. Mrs. Stone in particular looks happy.

“Oh, Zach, you even remembered the cookies,” she says. Usually, the family leaves out a plate of cookies for Santa on Christmas eve, since Zach’s little cousins still believe in all that.

“Of course, it wouldn’t be Christmas without them,” Zach says, smiling. He’s nervous, watching his family’s faces as they take in the decorations and music.

“This is very nice, Zach,” Mr. Stone says, patting his son on the back. Zach ducks his head.

“You know, I don’t know what it is, but it finally feels like Christmas around here,” Mrs. Stone says with a smile. “Maybe it’s the music, or the cookies, I don’t know.”

“It’s the little things,” Zach says, mentally thanking Amy for the millionth time since last night. “Also,” he adds, “I know Uncle Paul usually plays Santa and hands out gifts, but I thought I could fill his shoes this year. Or rather, his hat.” He picks up the worn red Santa hat that his uncle always wears to distribute gifts. The family gathers around the tree, everyone grabbing a cookie or two.

“So, who gets the first gift?” Mr. Stone says. “Sidney?”

“I think Zach should open one first,” she says, looking at her son fondly. “Seeing as he put all of this together.”

“Well, if you insist,” Zach says. He grabs several large packages with his name on them and piles them in his lap, tearing off the wrapping.

“Uh, Zach? What about us? Are you gonna give us presents to open?” Andy says, after Zach’s opened the first gift and continues on to the next.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll get to you,” he replies, waving him away. Andy and Mr. Stone both look at Mrs. Stone, who just shrugs.

 

Later that day, Zach and Amy are both finally able to get away from their families long enough to meet at the park to exchange gifts. Zach’s clutching his somewhat clumsily wrapped present in his hands, suddenly extremely nervous as he gets to the park. He’d felt pretty confident about his gift when he made it last night, but now he’s worried that maybe it’s not as cool as he thought it was, and Amy will actually think he’s super lame.

He spots her standing under a gazebo, and she looks so beautiful. He speeds up his walk, and when she sees him she waves, grinning.

“Hey, stranger,” she says when he reaches her, standing on her toes to kiss him. “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas,” Zach says, feeling weird butterfly-nerves in his stomach. “Here’s your present. I hope it’s okay.” He hands her the package. She holds one out to him as well.

“Open yours first,” she says eagerly.

“Oh, okay,” he says, unwrapping it. Hers is much neater than his. When he pulls the wrapping away, it reveals a large picture frame with a collage of photos inside. There’s one of him and Amy sitting in the old playhouse in Amy’s yard, probably no more than seven years old. There’s a picture of them on their first day of high school, before Zach hit his growth spurt and was only an inch or two taller than Amy. He had braces and she had pigtails and they both looked ridiculous and awkward, but they had their arms around each other and they were grinning. There’s another picture of them at high school graduation, Amy’s eyes puffy from crying, hugging Zach tightly. It’s a candid shot, and Zach’s face is partially obscured by Amy’s graduation cap, but you can still tell that he’s been a little weepy, too.

The pictures span the many years Zach and Amy have known each other, and dead center is a picture of them from a month or so ago, Amy kissing Zach’s cheek as she took the picture, Zach’s face red and his grin goofy and wide. Zach finally tears his gaze away from the gift to look at Amy, who is watching him with an expectant grin.

“Well?” she says. “What do you think?”

“Amy, it’s amazing,” he says, feeling a little choked up. “It’s perfect. I love it. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” she says, pecking his cheek. “Can I open yours now?”

“Yeah, yeah, of course,” he says. “Although I don’t know how I’m supposed to compete with this.”

“Oh hush, I’m sure it’s great.” She unwraps his gift to reveal a CD with a hand-drawn cover. [ _A Mixtape For My Beautiful Girlfriend_](http://8tracks.com/queensuperjelly/zach-s-mix-tape-for-amy), it reads in large, handwritten letters across the front. In the corner it says  _To Amy, Love Zach_. In the middle is the tracklisting. Amy smiles. “Oh, Zach, this is perfect!”

“Really?” he says, bashful.

“Yes! All of these songs are so us. You really put a lot of thought into this. I love it.” She kisses him again, and he wishes they could stay here all day. However, he promised his mom he wouldn’t be gone too long, and he and Amy had a whole three weeks before she has to go back to Brown, so they’ve got time.

“I know you have to go home soon, but first, can we go sit in my car and listen to this?” Amy asks.

“Totally,” Zach says. “Can we like, kiss and stuff too?”

“Of course,” she says. As they walk hand-in-hand to Amy’s car, she says, “I know we’ve spent lots of Christmases together, but this one feels different, doesn’t it? This Christmas is special.”

Zach smiles. “Yeah. It really is.”

_([listen to Zach's mixtape!](http://8tracks.com/queensuperjelly/zach-s-mix-tape-for-amy))_


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